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Israelâs Latest Assault on Gaza: The Lie of Who Started It

Israel has again attacked Gaza. In its aerial and ground assault that began on Saturday, November 10th, at least 7 Palestinians have been killed, 5 of them civilians, 3 of whom were children. Up to 52 others, including 6 women and 12 children, have been wounded.

One of the wounded is carried into a hospital in Gaza City following Israelâs shelling (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

As in every vicious military offensive Israel carries out in Gaza, the dominant narrative is that it is a response to rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. This is how itâs being reported in the US, and this is how virtually every American understands it.

And itâs a lie.

Itâs true that on Saturday, prior to the expanded Israeli bombardment, the military wing of the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine shot an anti-tank missile at an Israeli Defense Forces vehicle near the Gaza border, wounding four Israeli soldiers. But what prompted the firing of the anti-tank missile?

First, on Monday, November 5th, Israeli forces shot and killed 23 year old Ahmad Nabhani when he âapproached the border fence with Israel.â According to at least one account, Nabhani was mentally challenged.

Then, on Thursday, November 8th, the Israeli Occupation Forces â eight tanks and four bulldozers, to be exact â invaded southern Gaza, shooting and killing a 13-year old boy. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (via):

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 16:30 on Thursday, as a result of the indiscriminate shooting by IOF military vehicles that had moved into the âAbassan village, 13-year-old Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa was seriously wounded by a bullet to the abdomen. At the time he was shot, Ahmed had been playing football with his friends in front of his familyâs house, located nearly 1,200 meters away from the area where the IOF were present.

So, even if honest observers brush to the side the cruel and inhumane Israeli blockade on Gaza and refuse to let it influence the equation of exactly which side started this flare up of violence, it is clear Israel started this latest clash. And in response to the response, Israel has waged a harsh, disproportionate military assault.

This would be a simple thing to understand if, for example, Western media bothered to ask the other side what happened. Palestinian news media immediately reported that the anti-tank missile Israel was supposedly responding to was admitted to by the Popular Resistance Committees, who described it as ârevengeâ for preceding Israeli violence on Gaza. But that basic task of honest journalism is apparently out of the question.

Every single Israeli incursion or attack on Gaza is accompanied by the same narrative: Israel fairly responded to unprovoked Palestinian rocket fire. The last major war on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead in December â08-January â09, also carried this narrative. Israel committed war crimes in that one-sided conflict, targeting and killing hundreds of civilians, using indiscriminate weapons, and intentionally destroying civilian infrastructure. It has become an accepted fact â even among critics of Israel â that the offensive was a response to Hamas rocket fire. The rocket fire did indeed occur immediately before the assault, but it was in response to Israelâs breaking of the six-month cease-fire, which even Israeli officials in WikiLeaks cables admitted Hamas had kept to.

Hamas are a bunch of blood thirsty terrorists. They use children as human shields. Israel is surrounded by terrorist Nations bent on destroying her. The Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt have vowed to slaughter the Jews. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned many times he will push Israel into the Mediterranean sea. This tiny Nation has the moral right to defend herself. Sadly there are innocent Palestinians caught up in the violent actions of their evil gov't.

i wish we could close our eyes and ignore whats going on over there but unfortunately we cannot. whether we like it or not our tax dollars are funding these onesided "wars".

the truth does need to told and retold. so i applaud you for having the courage to post this....

you do not have to be a liberal to understand that there are always two sides to every story, so why listen to only one side of the story? and don't cry the isreal is alone and surrounded mantra - she is better armed than some countries 20 times her size, plus she is guarenteed protection from her enemies by the u.s. and the u.k., french support waivers. where is the harm in being enlightened to the historical and real time basis of the palestinian-isreali conflict? our nation's funding of isreal won't change so why not be honest and learn the truth about the situation?

i wish we could close our eyes and ignore whats going on over there but unfortunately we cannot. whether we like it or not our tax dollars are funding these onesided "wars".

the truth does need to told and retold. so i applaud you for having the courage to post this....

you do not have to be a liberal to understand that there are always two sides to every story, so why listen to only one side of the story? and don't cry the isreal is alone and surrounded mantra - she is better armed than some countries 20 times her size, plus she is guarenteed protection from her enemies by the u.s. and the u.k., french support waivers. where is the harm in being enlightened to the historical and real time basis of the palestinian-isreali conflict? our nation's funding of isreal won't change so why not be honest and learn the truth about the situation?

The only side of the story is that Palestinians are dogs, nothing more.

i wish we could close our eyes and ignore whats going on over there but unfortunately we cannot. whether we like it or not our tax dollars are funding these onesided "wars".

the truth does need to told and retold. so i applaud you for having the courage to post this....

you do not have to be a liberal to understand that there are always two sides to every story, so why listen to only one side of the story? and don't cry the isreal is alone and surrounded mantra - she is better armed than some countries 20 times her size, plus she is guarenteed protection from her enemies by the u.s. and the u.k., french support waivers. where is the harm in being enlightened to the historical and real time basis of the palestinian-isreali conflict? our nation's funding of isreal won't change so why not be honest and learn the truth about the situation?

The only side of the story is that Palestinians are dogs, nothing more.

the palestinians are human beings just like you and i are. they have a god-given right to exist on this earth too! the germans called the jews dogs and worse, but the "world" eventually determined that this was wrong. white people said that black people were animals, apes and monkeies, the supreme court and civil rights movement determined that white people were wrong in their thinking. the european white of south africa called the indiginous people sub-human, but the world determned that they too were wrong. you may not like the palestinians but they are human beings first, your bible/ torah teaches that and to call them less than that goes against sane judeo-christian religious teachings.

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